THE Stirrer's campaign to keep alive the BBC's Drama Production Village in Selly Oak is going right to the top of the Corporation.

Screen WM chief executive Suzie Norton, who fears the loss of up to 60 jobs at the Birmingham University site, is meeting the Corporation's director general Mark Thompson in London next month to discuss the issue.

I revealed in the Birmingham Mail recently that plans were afoot to shift our last locally made drama Doctors to Manchester.

Together with the decision to take Mailbox-produced programmes for Radio Two and Five Live to London and even switch WM's Late Show to Nottingham, it's clear the Beeb now regards the Second City as second rate.